Many games provide a virtual world or some other imagined playing space where a player of the game controls one or more player characters, engages in in-game actions, and/or acquires in-game assets. Player characters (also referred to as characters or PCs) can be considered in-game representations of the controlling player. A game engine accepts inputs from the player, determines player character actions, decides outcomes of events and presents the player with a game display illuminating what happened. In some games with multiple players, each player may control one or more player characters.
A player of a game can directly engage in in-game actions or indirectly via a player character in a role-playing game. For example, in-game actions may include building a virtual town, growing virtual crops, going on a quest, buying/selling virtual items from a virtual store, and the like. Many games also support acquisition of in-game assets (also referred to as rewards or loot) by a player in order to facilitate control of player characters or to perform in-game actions. Examples of in-game assets include, but are not limited to, acquiring game points, gold coins, experience points, character levels, character attributes, virtual cash, game keys, and other in-game items of value within the game.
In an online game, a specific playing space, game settings, in-game assets, etc. (collectively referred to as game attributes) may be uniquely associated with each player of the game. The specific game attributes for a given player may be accessed using a particular username and password. Accordingly, unless a player knows the username and password (or other access information required by the game) of another player, the player can only play within his/her own playing space using his/her own in-game assets. In other words, the player does not have access to another player's playing space, game settings, in-game assets, and the like. This may be true even for multi-player games. A first player may engage in in-game actions and interact with a second player in a common playing space. Nevertheless, the first player may not have access to the second player's in-game assets because those in-game assets are associated with and only accessible by the second player. The second player similarly may not have access to the first player's in-game assets.
The headings provided herein are for convenience only and do not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the claimed invention.